1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method therefor, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Arts
As an example of image forming apparatuses such as a multifunctional peripheral and a single-function printer, an image forming apparatus having a sleep mode (power saving mode) in which power consumption is lower than in a standby state (normal power mode) has been proposed. In the sleep mode, power supply to units other than a random access memory (RAM), a network interface card (NIC), and an operation unit of the image forming apparatus is stopped in order to save power consumption during sleep. That is, image forming processing cannot be executed in the sleep mode, because power supply to a photosensitive drum and a fixing device provided in a printer unit of the image forming apparatus and also the central processing unit (CPU) and the hard disk drive (HDD) is stopped.
If a predetermined condition is satisfied during the sleep mode, the image forming apparatus returns from the sleep mode to the standby state. Examples of predetermined conditions include the case where a user has performed an operation on the operation unit of the image forming apparatus, and the case where a network interface apparatus has received a packet that meets a condition for returning from the sleep mode, from a network. For this reason, even during the sleep mode, power is being supplied to the operation unit and the NIC, and the press of a button provided in the operation unit, the reception of a packet or the like is being monitored. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-196741 proposes a technique in which, upon receiving a specific wake-up packet, the NIC of the image forming apparatus causes the apparatus body to return from the sleep mode and transmits a subsequently received job to the apparatus body.
However, such a conventional technique has the following problems. With the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-196741, the network interface apparatus that received a job causes the image forming apparatus to return from the power saving mode to the standby state, even if the received job is prohibited from being executed by the image forming apparatus. The reason for this is because the network interface apparatus is unable to determine whether or not the received job is a target that is prohibited from being executed. In other words, for example, if an image forming job is input via a network after transition to the sleep mode, it cannot be determined in the sleep mode whether or not that job is a target that is prohibited from undergoing image forming operations, and the image forming apparatus needs to be waked up into the standby state. In such a case, for example where the input image forming job is determined after wake-up, as a target that is prohibited from undergoing image forming operations, that image forming job is not executed, and the wake-up will have been unnecessary.